Sistahs

I just have to say there is nothing like having sisters. There is just a special bond that you can't put into words. When I was younger I used to always borrow my older sister Melinda's clothes. It used to bug her so bad when I would raid her closet, but she just had way cooler clothes than me. I used to never get along with my little sister Libby, we were just opposites growing up -- she being 'perfect' and me so not. :) And Jessica, who by default of being the baby got picked on quite a bit by everyone older and 'wiser' -- we used to fight like cats and dogs, or maybe just cats. :) But somehow I think it all worked out in the end, somehow we made it through those younger years and now can look back and laugh and have no hard feelings. I feel that we are lucky for that, that we get along so well now, because not everyone makes it through those tough years and comes out still loving each other. I remember the last fight my older sister, Melinda and I had. I remember because we were almost too old to fight, and it had been a while since we were in the hurting each other phase. She was 19 and I was 15, she came back from college to El Paso and she did something that made me mad (which I can't remember now), and so my reaction was to kick her as hard as I could in the shin. She yelled in pain and grabbed her leg for a couple of seconds, and then she gave me this look. Every kid who has an older sibling knows this look, the one where you know your only way to survive is flight or fight. Did I mention she was way into weight lifting back then? In fact, she was way proud of those guns and they were HUGE. So anyway, I remember seeing the look on her face and I booked down the hall and ran into my room (I was in track) and shut and locked the door. I can't remember if she had chased after me, but I remember that I stayed in my room for about 2 hours, fearful that when I came out she would pummel me. Well, eventually I did come out and she was over it. I never heard a word about it again. It wasn't until very recently that I asked her why she didn't kill me for that, because that is just what older siblings do, they almost always get the last word. She told me that because we had been getting along so well for a while, that she thought about it and decided that it wasn't worth ruining our relationship that had been developing for such a short while. And so she bit it and let it pass (thankfully). I will always be grateful for her wisdom in seeing the bigger picture at the time. She opened up a new world of how sisters can get along without all the drama. It was sort of a milestone that day because her maturity helped me to grow up a little bit too -- (not that any of the girls in my family are mature by any means.) Thank goodness we got better at getting along because then we inherited an awesome sister-in-law and of course now I have even more sisters that I inherited through Dave's family -- all of them super cool. These new sisters don't know that I used to bite and scream and kick others in the shin, but I guess they know now. Anyway, I just love having sisters. There is nothing like them.

More Andy Singing....

This is a pretty good collection and sums up Andy in a nutshell.

Andy sings Erasure

How can you not love Andy's singing? I love that he breaks into song on the show. So awesome! He might be moving into my favorite character on the show. Last night he tried to court Angela, who unbeknownst to him is in the middle of a break up with Dwight. She is oblivious to his attempts, but he may have made a breakthrough last night. And P.S., if you don't like Andy then "You like So need Awesome Lessons".

Homework, Homework, and more HOMEWORK!!!

So being a student again is so hard right now with three kids. Did I say being a student again? I meant being the parent of a student. Okay, I know we are talking kindergarten, but the homework they require is sometimes overwhelming for me. I know it's only a few worksheets here and there, but now they've added reading -- 2 books every day -- one Jonny reads to me and one I read to him. It's also a little hard to do the worksheet stuff when your child has a natural aversion to doing anything with a pencil. There is not a whole lot of interest in writing with him -- (I think that is kind of a boy thing), but the good news is that I had a mini teacher conference today with his teacher and he is doing really great at school socially and academically. The funny thing that happened yesterday was he brought his school packet home which shows all the work they've been doing at school. And I pulled out his writing stuff and his letters looked Amazing! They were clear, dark letters with great form and I was like Wow -- he has improved a lot! So I said, "Jonny, Wow, did you do all these letters?" He said "Yeah. Well, actually no, Kaitlyn did them for me. I don't really like doing letters so she helps me out and did those for me." Hahahahah! I don't think he even gets the concept of cheating at this age. I think in his mind, he's like "hey, this stuff is hard and boring and if this girl is willing to do this for me, then that suits me just fine." We'll definitely have to nip this and hopefully it won't become a problem, but I thought that was kind of funny that he figured out a better way in his mind. Jonny does like school though and seems to enjoy having a routine and structure. It is actually suiting him very well. He's starting to tell James certain rules about things because that's what his teacher says you're supposed to do. And James has just started our Mom's Preschool where I get to take part one every four weeks. He LOVES it and loves his little friends (2 boys and a girl) who do it with him. No homework for him though :) and he loves being the 'oldest at home' while Jonny is off to school.

First Day of School

Jonny's 1st day of orientation. Dave and I went with Jonny to meet his teacher and classmates and as you can see he was so So Excited!

His teacher made a great 1st impression when she gave each child a baggie with mini smores in them (baby marshmallows, teddy grahams and chocolate chips).

The very next day was Jonny's real first day of school where he went all by himself.

Of course, James, too was in on all the excitement!

Captain James and Jonny

How can you say no to those eyes and that face?

I can't help but smile every time I see these pictures. They were taken about a year ago, so James was 2 and Jonny 4. They loved and still do love dressing as pirates and such and climbing into those boxes and pretending that the boxes are their boats. They can play forever that way. Gotta love these days!

Sweatin' to the Oldies

So this week I got a coupon in the mail to recieve a free consultation for a program where you get one-on-one fitness training. I have been wanting to have an exercise program for years, actually, but I know I'm the type of person who needs someone to push me or check up on me, or help me to set the right goals. Not to mention that having a post-prego body that seems to get worse with each child made me want to give it try and just see what they had to offer. So with the hopes that the kids would be down by 8:00, I made my appointment with Scott for 8:15. Come 8:00 that evening, I very hesitantly walked out the door as I saw a screaming infant and 2 hyper/excited boys who were supposed to be going to bed and a husband who, as I was trying to blow the appointment off, was saying that "when we make commitments, we keep commitments". So with that I ditched everyone and went out for a peaceful drive to the facility. Well, let me tell you I heard all the buzz words that could've hit home with me except for the fact that it took the guy a whole entire hour to tell me what they had to offer in what he could have easily told me in 15 minutes. You know the buzz words -- things like these machines have 'cutting edge' technology, and we don't work muscles in isolation, it's all about 'functional training', and 'celebrities' are now using these same machines (He mentioned the movie 300 too many times which I have only heard of whose main actors I guess got really ripped using these same machines.) Of course at the tail end he slipped in the cost which was only around $70 per 45 minute session. I did almost fall asleep while he was talking until he got to that price. Anyways, if you guys know our family then you know that the price pretty much made our decision rather simple. So back to square one on figuring out how to get in shape. In the meantime, enjoy the picture of Dave (with hair -- sort of) and Richard (no -- not Dave's older brother). Dave did tell me when we were dating that he was a huge fan of the fabulous video work-out diva from the eighties. Apparently the picture doesn't do him justice because you can't see the awesome spandex shorts on the bottom.